


In The Clear

by uncreativename



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Future Fic, Humor, catmilla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 11:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncreativename/pseuds/uncreativename
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura has finally gotten her big journalistic break – but it’s not without complications. Written for butwhowouldbuythecupcakes on Tumblr for the Creampuff Secret Santa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Clear

**Author's Note:**

> If I got any details wrong about working at a newspaper, museum, or animal services, my bad! The Toronto Herald and the Ontario Museum of Civilization are not real places, but they’re based real places. Thanks Google! 
> 
> This is dedicated to butwhowouldbuythecupcakes on Tumblr, my awesome Creampuff Secret Santa.

It was just barely 7:30 am, Monday morning, downtown Toronto. Laura Hollis was at work early, typing away on her latest assignment about Eugenia Hitchens, a 92-year-old woman from Scarborough who amassed a collection of over 10,000 tea cosies (the lady vaguely reminded Laura of Perry). 

As one of three Staff Reporters for the Life section of the _Toronto Herald_ , Laura was usually given the feel-good, fluff pieces. It was a start, and she was more than okay with working her way up the food chain. And it wasn’t all bad – one of her most recent articles, titled “How parents are handling the Santa question” became a viral sensation. 

(According to Laura, it was because it was a great piece of writing; but it was mostly because she also highlighted her own experience in accidentally spoiling that Santa wasn’t real to two children whose parents she was profiling. But in her defense, _honestly_ , those kids were even tinier than her – _how was she supposed to know that they were right behind her?!_ ) 

She was reviewing her notes from her interview with Eugenia when a knock on the cubicle wall caught her attention.

“Hollis, Elaine Yang wants to see you.”

“I’m sorry?” Laura asked, her head snapping up from her computer. Henry, the editor of the Life section, stood at the entrance with a big smile. 

“You heard me. Apparently Yang’s in the business of poaching my reporters,” Henry replied. “She liked your article on the emergence of Feminist clubs in Toronto high schools. Said it had grit. She wants to discuss a potential story with you. And you have my blessing to jump ship,” he added with a shrug.

Laura was surprised; she had never worked directly with Elaine Yang, the Newsroom editor. Elaine had a reputation in _Canada_ , much less Toronto, for being a hard hitter in investigative journalism. The fact that she thought Laura had grit – well that was _huge_.

“Wow, are you serious?!” Laura exclaimed, jumping up and giving him a hug while barely suppressing a squeal. 

“I wouldn’t joke about this. Now take ten minutes to calm yourself down, then go to straight to her office. You made that weird high-pitched noise that you make when you’re excited. Try not to do that around her,” he said before laughing and walking away.

Laura quickly saved her draft of her article and made her way to the ninth floor, where the Newsroom team were. 

Up the elevator and down the hall, Laura stood in front of Elaine Yang’s closed office door. Even the air in the Newsroom was more exciting than on the second floor, where several departments (Life, Entertainment, Obituaries, and Classifieds) were packed. She took a deep breath and exhaled before knocking, presumably about to get her first, real, professional piece of investigative journalism.

* * *

 

Also around 7:30 am in the empty parking garage of an apartment building in Toronto, a cloud of cat-shaped smoke shifted into a vaguely annoyed-looking woman. Carmilla Karnstein. She yawned – which sounded strangely like a purr – and made her way up the stairwell.

Carmilla was just getting back home from spending the night, well, being Carmilla. She had the day off from the museum where she was the Assistant Curator in the Ancient Cultures department. She thought that being a Philosophy major (most recently; she couldn’t really include _all_ of the degrees she amassed in the last 300+ years on her resume) and thus being relatively unhireable would make it difficult for her to find a job. But when word got out that she, Lilita Morgan’s “daughter”, who was critical in her demise, was moving to Toronto, the Ontario Museum of Civilization got in touch with her to work with them.

The Dean was not well liked internationally, it seemed. And, it turns out, the world of history, ancient relics, and art didn’t so much care about supernatural affiliations or beings. They more so cared to utilize her understanding of Sumerian and other ancient languages. And rewarding any enemy to Lilita Morgan.

So, after Laura graduated from Silas University and was awarded a prestigious internship at the Toronto Herald, the two moved from Styria to Toronto. For Carmilla, it was a no-brainer to move. She was proud of Laura and Carmilla wanted all of Laura’s dreams to come true. Also, she was not too keen on staying at Silas, which was more than likely on top of a hell mouth (it seemed as though vanquishing a “big bad” every semester did not make someone yearn to stay for too long). 

That said, living in Toronto was a huge adjustment for Carmilla. In Styria, she enjoyed lush, thick forests where she could be free to exercise her vampiric abilities – her super-speed, cat-form, amazing strength, etc. Here in Toronto, the lack of forests for her to roam around at night made her feel stifled. But there were ways around it. It’s not like she would stop. She just worked out a system for herself. She prowled around deserted city parks and neighborhoods late at night and early in the morning. And she followed these two rules:

1\. Don’t let people see you

2\. If people see you, run the fuck away. 

And it had worked thus far. She had a favourite park to run around. Everything was _fine_ ; until a few days prior, that is.

It was nothing, really. She was running back home from High Park, as a cat. She was using her super-speed and her cat reflexes to race back home in no time. It was a little later in the morning than she usually allowed herself to be out as a cat, around 8:00 am, but she had a particularly fun night. She was going to change back into human form before leaving the park, but she was feeling adventurous. And she was _so close_ to home, to Laura (who was no doubt already awake despite it being a Saturday), when about three blocks away from their apartment when she heard a little old lady scream.

“A CAT! A BIG BLACK CAT!” 

She ran the fuck away.

* * *

 

“CARMILLA KARNSTEIN. WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Laura stormed into her apartment and threw their bedroom door open. Carmilla laid in their bed, sprawled out on top of the sheets.

“CARMILLA. Wake up,” Laura said, poking her in the back. “ _CARMILLA._ ”

“Cupcake, give me five minutes to wake myself up and I’ll let you do whatever you want to do to me,” Carmilla said into Laura’s (yellow) pillow. Laura could _hear_ the seduction eyes in her voice. “I can even take my pants off right now, speed things up for you?” she added. She rolled over and smirked at Laura.

Laura ignored her. “Have you been, I don’t know _, prowling the_ _streets of Toronto_ _at night as a_ _cat_?!”

Carmilla yawned, smacked her lips, and sat up, eyebrows raised and looking Laura straight in the eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, cutie.”

Laura glared and put her hands on her hips. She _knew_ Carmilla knew exactly what she was talking about. “Well, I have some _great_ news. I have been asked to switch departments. You’re now looking at the newest Staff Reporter for the Newsroom – if my next assignment goes well.”

“That _is_ great news, Laura,” Carmilla said, smiling. Laura wasn’t smiling. “That’s great news, isn’t it?” She reached out for Laura’s hand; Laura could tell Carmilla sensed the beginning of a freak-out. She stiffened, but laced their fingers together anyway.

“Oh, wait till you hear the best part – my first assignment is to investigate the recent sightings of a _big, black cat_ , possibly a _jaguar,_ in and around Davenport, Parkdale, and High Park.”

Laura swore she saw Carmilla gulp. “Oh. Well. I can see why you’re upset with me.” Carmilla let go of Laura’s hand, moving past her to go to the kitchen.

Laura’s phone beeped. She looked at it; LaFontaine finally responded to the frantic texts she sent to them after her meeting with Elaine. She scrolled through and rolled her eyes. LaF sent “HAAAAAAAAAAAA,” but with an exponential amount of additional A’s. Seriously, her friend was lucky she was busy tearing Carmilla a new one. She put her phone away followed Carmilla’s retreating back.

“You don’t understand what you’ve done! What am I going to do?! How am I going to ‘investigate’ this?!” Laura exclaimed. Her hands were still up from her air quotes. She was fuming. She was making the angry bunched-up face, trying her hardest to make it look tough and intimidating.

Carmilla poked her head up from the fridge, pouring herself a glass of blood before closing the door. She smiled a little – probably because of said bunched-up face, which Laura did not find amusing. “Well. That does sound tricky.”

“ _TRICKY_?! Seriously Carmilla?!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Carmilla started, taking a gulp from her glass before putting it down on the counter. “It sounds as though that could be me…”

“Ugh! I know you’ve been going out at night, and I don’t think you should have to stop being _you_ , and we talked about you being careful. But this – this – _cat sighting business_ really sucks, Carm!” Laura said. She was feeling a rant coming up. She needed to calm down.

Fortunately, it seemed as though Carmilla sensed it too. 

“Laura, I’m sorry,” Carmilla said, reaching out to squeeze Laura’s arm. “It’s just…you know how hard it is for me be in the big city for this long.” Laura nodded, so Carmilla continued. “And, really, if you think about it, if this is the first time we’re hearing of this – and we’ve been here for three years, well, I’ve been doing pretty well at being stealthy-” Carmilla looked up and caught Laura’s glare, “-but I’ll celebrate that fact later.”

Laura groaned. “This is a just _really crappy_ coincidence, Carm. I mean, what are the chances that this, potentially my big break into _real freaking journalism_ hinges on me finding…well, you.”

Carmilla wrapped her arms around Laura. “Cupcake, I’m sorry.”

Laura leaned against her, the tension dissipating a little. “I guess you’re right. It _is_ just a few people. Maybe they’re just seeing…something else?”

“Maybe? But I should probably tell you this now. A few days ago, super early in the morning, I vaguely remember a little old lady-“

Oh shit. Laura looked up, eyebrows into her forehead. “-possibly Gertrude Frunkleton, 82 years old, lives three blocks away?-“

“-screaming about seeing a cat, but I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was because of me-”

“- _seriously_ , Carmilla?-“ Laura moved out of Carmilla’s arms. Sometimes she wanted to strangle her.

“-and a week before that, in the park, there was that couple who may have seen me,” Carmilla continued. Laura laughed humourlessly, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. “Yeah, I probably should’ve told you about that too. These two guys who were _totally trying to get it on_ at the park out in the open-“

Oh great, another set of witnesses Carmilla already knew about. “-Robert and Paul Hobernay, they live six blocks away-“

“-which, by the way, _we should totally try that, the park was empty,_ I mean, except for me, I was there and definitely saw _everything_ -“

“- _Carmilla_ ,” Laura warned. “I have a list of witnesses, including those people, and a few more, plus Toronto Animal Services. All of whom I’m meeting with this week to discuss the scary big black cat!” 

“Okay. Well. I don’t know what you’re going to do. _But_ ,” Carmilla said, wrapping her arms around Laura’s waist, trying to make amends, “whatever you’re going to do, I’m sure it will be _so_ clever, brilliant, and well-written. And you’ll figure out a way where you won’t have to reveal my deep dark secret to all of Canada.” 

“That really doesn’t help,” Laura said. Despite her annoyance, she found herself leaning into Carmilla once again. “And I’m really not crazy about you wandering around at night until we figure this out. You could get killed. Or caught. Animal control are already looking for you-“

“-Well, that’s just _rude_ -“

“- _And_ ,” Laura continued, shushing Carmilla by pressing her fingers to Carmilla’s lips, “if they catch you, who knows what will happen. This might be big for my career, but more importantly, I don’t want anything happening to you.” She moved her hand from Carmilla’s lips to her cheek and leaned up, giving her a quick, but sweet, kiss. “I don’t ever want you to think that I don’t want you to be _you_. I’m not asking you to stop being _Cat_ milla-“

“-Don’t call me that-“ 

“-but, I also don’t want you to get hurt. Or worse.” Laura shrugged and placed her hands on Carmilla’s shoulders.

Carmilla reached forward, cupping Laura’s cheek as she captured her lips once more. Immediately, Laura pushed herself further into her, deepening the kiss.

 _This_ never got old, or boring, and always made Laura feel better.

Carmilla smiled as she pulled away and leaned her forehead against Laura’s. “Okay, cupcake. I’ll figure something out. I’ll mix it up, go to different parks. I’ll go to King's Mill or even Rouge. It’s a lot farther away, but the trees are denser. It’ll be safer. I don’t want you to worry.”

“Thank you,” Laura said. She really felt awful about this situation, but since Carmilla knew she had been spotted, she wouldn’t let it happen again. 

* * *

 

Later that evening, as Laura slept soundly in bed, Carmilla left their apartment as she usually did at that time of night. Carmilla strolled past the block where the little old lady spotted her a few days before. She stopped and turned around, electing to go to another park, on the other side of the city. 

It was _much_ farther away, but with super-speed and such, it wouldn’t be that much of an inconvenience.

She really did love being a cat.

Not to mention that the last time she was captured, Laura and her friends kept her tied up for nine days. Obviously it worked out in the end, but she figured that being captured by Toronto Animal Services would be less…entertaining.

Plus, Laura would be _pissed._

* * *

 

A few days later, after spending the morning interviewing the last of her witnesses, Robert and Paul (who not only _definitely_ spotted Carmilla, like Carmila said, they were also were also total exhibitionists), Laura was feeling better about the story.

There were no concrete leads or clear photographs. Animal Services were at a loss. While a few more people came forward in the days since receiving her assignment, and Laura fully believed that they had seen Carmilla, none of them could get their stories straight. Some said the cat was over 7 feet long; others claimed the cat was no more than 5 feet long. Some said that it acted like a docile housecat; others said it was wild and fast. Some even claimed that it wore a collar.

(And as much as she tried, Carmilla was not willing to wear a special-made collar that read ‘C (heart) L’.)

Laura was going to frame it as a mysterious sighting; one of Toronto’s many (great) oddities. She was confident she would be able to complete the article by the end of the day when she got an urgent text from her source at Toronto Animal Services. She nearly fainted.

“They captured the cat. Come here ASAP.”

* * *

 

“This kitty is HUGE. We had to get the Toronto Zoo to help us capture her. They’ll be working with us on figuring out what to do. But the good news, as a thanks for all your hard work – we were thinking of naming her after you, Laura!” Neil, the Animal Services manager who she had been speaking with all week, clapped her on the back as he moved her towards the glass wall.

The big cat was tranquilized; alive, fortunately, but heavily sedated. Laura fought back tears and pressed her hand against the glass. She ran over possible ways she could rescue Carmilla from this.

  1.     Break through the glass, pick her up, and run. (Impossible; she’s huge)
  2.     Pull the fire alarm, and when everyone’s freaking out and running, come back in, break through the glass, pick her up and run. (Again, impossible, but with even more impossibilities)
  3.     Force Carmilla to shift back into a human. Somehow. Again, she was looking really sedated. She barely lifted her head up to look at Laura.



“Also, the cat was wearing a collar. There was a number attached to it; we called, and the lady is on her way. We’re going to get some answers as to _where_ she came from soon.”

 _What_?

He dropped the collar in her hands. Through her tears, she noticed that the collar said “Penny.” She looked up; on closer inspection, the cat was _much_ smaller than Carmilla.

She heard an anguished cry behind her – a woman burst through the doors.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PENELOPE?!”

There were _two_ big cats?

* * *

 “I thought it was you! I was so sad! I nearly started sobbing!”

 “Oh, sweetheart. Come here,” Carmilla said, pulling Laura into a hug. “You’re _adorable_. You really thought I’d get caught? And you didn’t think to text me?”

“Well, I was in distress! I wasn’t thinking! It turns out that the cat they captured was the illegal pet of this weird eccentric rich woman. And her name is Penelope. She’s now been quarantined at the Toronto Zoo. Penelope. Not the rich lady.” 

“You said you had pictures of the cat?”

“Oh yeah, here, take my phone!” Laura grabbed her phone out of her back pocket and thrust it into Carmilla’s hand. Then she wrapped her arms back around Carmilla, throwing her face into her neck.

“Anyway, like I said,” Laura continued, a little muffled, “I was SO relieved. And even better news – Elaine loved my story and it’s being published tomorrow!”

 Carmilla said nothing; Laura picked her head up from Carmilla’s shoulder and saw her frown as she flipped through the pictures of Penelope on Laura’s phone.

“Carm, it’s _okay_. Penelope is in a better place. The zoo thinks that they’ll be able to find a good, safe, happy home for her. And her owner is going to be fined up the wall for this – turns out she got Penelope from the same dealer who got that other lady the Ikea monkey,” Laura said. She leaned up and planted a kiss on her lips. Carmilla quickly returned it, eyes not looking away from the pictures on the phone.

“Are you okay?” Laura asked, worriedly.

Shaking her head, Carmilla sighed. “It’s just – Cupcake, _really?!_ You thought that was _me_?! That thing is TINY.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to my wife who beta’d this. And gave me the idea for it. She basically did it all, let’s be honest.


End file.
